“I just need to wait until Leech is isolated to kill him from a safe distance with my Blade Tier spell. The junk he wears is no match for my Davross equipment empowered by my tower.” Orpal said with a huge smile on his face.
“All of my efforts and sacrifices are soon going to be repaid.”
‘It’s *our* Blade Spell, equipment, and tower, you arrogant idiot!’ Night thought. ‘Also, that’s not what I’m thinking. At all. I would indeed wait for an opening, but to Warp close and strike from point blank so that he doesn’t have the time to dodge.
‘And I would do that only after studying what Lith’s cursed object can do and make sure that she’s not just going to heal his wounds like I would. Hystar only had the time to reveal Solus’ true nature to us and died before saying anything about her abilities.
‘On top of that, it’s been over a year since we last witnessed Lith’s strength. Assuming that he’s still the same as before and going blind against a cursed object who might be even stronger than me is not just wishful thinking, it’s pure madness.’
***
“What’s the plan?” Lith said while approaching the Black Tide. “No offense but I have no idea what you guys can do and bad teamwork is worse than no teamwork.”
“I agree but luckily, every one of us is strong enough to act on their own so there’s no need for that. Well, almost every one of us.” Raagu looked at Solus who was the weakest in the group.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but there’s no need to worry since Lith wasn’t talking about me.” Solus replied. “Lith, Tista, and I make a great team and always have each other’s back.”
“It’s kind of a waste of two Divine Beasts but fair enough.” Raagu said, pissing Solus off big time. “Inxialot is immortal so I’m going to throw him right in the belly of the beast. Can you do the same, Ilthin?”
“For a while, sure.” The Firstborn Banshee nodded. “But don’t overestimate your friend. If he wears his phylactery, it can still be destroyed.”
“Point taken.” Raagu sighed, relinquishing her plan to throw Nero together with the Sealed Box.
The disguised Emperor Beast didn’t like it. He liked it even less when Raagu dropped him from Lith back without notice. A heart-wrenching meowing accompanied his freefall to the ground.
“What?” Raagu asked in reply to the shocked and disgusted stares the rest of the group threw at her. “I refuse to believe that any of you is stupid enough to buy the cat act and I couldn’t leave Nero here without sealing Lith’s Flames.
“From this distance, the phylactery is close enough to give Inxialot his full powers and too distant for the monsters to find it. Even if they do, Nero has plenty of time to run away.”
No one could argue with her logic but her heartlessness still stood.
“Why dropping Nero instead of Warping him to the ground? You know, in the off chance you are wrong.” Tista asked.
“Cats always fall on their feet. Or so they say.” Raagu shrugged. “This is my stop. I’ll attack the monsters from the sides while you guys attack from the inside.”
She opened a Warp Steps leading right into the middle of the Black Tide and emptied the Sealed Box in it before jumping off Lith’s back.
“This is also my stop.” Bodya grunted. “I shouldn’t need help, but if you hear me scream in pain, that’s my safe word.”
He jumped off as well but while Raagu used a Float spell to slow her descent and gauge the distance with the enemy while weaving her spells, Bodya simply shapeshifted into his real form.
The ground opened like water on contact with the Nidhogg, letting him dive underground and then forward without losing momentum. Finally away from Tista, he could let the fury and pain that ravaged his heart go rampant.
His roars conjured runes for his most destructive spells and made the ground quake but the monsters didn’t notice, the vibration of millions of feet drowning out the Lesser Leviathan’s voice.
As for Nero, he cursed Raagu while using gravity fusion to slow down his descent until the Tiamat was far away enough and then reverted into his real form. The black cat grew into a huge ball of fur and ice, great crystal wings sprouting from his back and catching the air currents like a parachute.
“Fuck them. I would have helped them if they asked. Now they can die for all I care.” Nero’s voice came out in a low growl as he shook his mane which chilled the night air into snowflakes.
“I’m stronger than Inxialot but unlike him, I need to feed and monsters are immune to my Charm.” Ilthin said. “I can use some cover fire. Both literally and figuratively.”
“I can do better. Maybe.” Lith tried to remember the sensation he had experienced back when he had absorbed the Life Maelstrom from Thrud’s generals and somehow amplified it until he had generated some of his own.
He lacked the necessary mana organ but the emerald eye allowed him to control life force, the yellow one the air element, and his heart could process the world energy. Using Valeron’s Life Maelstrom inside of him as a template, Lith sent the power of the emerald and yellow eyes to his heart, giving the silver lightning everything it needed to grow.
Once the Life Maelstrom grew beyond what Lith could control, he poured the excess into Ilthin and her equipment, amplifying their power by tenfold.
“Thank you, sweetie.” She kissed one of his scales and jumped off.
A burst of darkness magic erased the lipstick mark and the traces of the Banshee’s perfume.
“What was that?” Tista asked in outrage.
“Life Maelstrom. Don’t worry, I haven’t sacrificed what Valeron gave me. I-”
“I meant the hickey-erase spell!”
“First, that wasn’t a hickey. Second, when I shapeshift it should disappear but I’m not taking any chance. Now get off my back. Both literally and figuratively.” Lith grabbed his sister, infused her with part of the silver lightning he had left, and let her go.
“You can drop me but I’m not dropping this so easily. We are not done talking.” Tista nodded in gratitude as red scales covered her expanding body, but the glare extended to all of her seven eyes.
“Whatever.” Lith ignored her comment and focused on the roiling living tide below. ‘This is a good opportunity to go all-out for both of us, Solus, but there’s no mana geyser for you. Any idea?’
He went from talking to using a mind link in a heartbeat. Their bond created a space where no one could disturb them.
‘Yes. I can’t stay here either. The focus you’d spend on keeping your flames from hurting me would limit your destructive power and there’s not much I can do from up here. I could use the Life Maelstrom, though.’
She took the Golem, Raptor, out of the pocket dimension and activated the Spirit Crystal that gave it access to part of Lith’s memories and bloodline abilities.
